Ancient blob-like creature of the deep revealed by scientists

August 4, 2010

3D model of ancient sea creature

(PhysOrg.com) -- A unique blob-like creature that lived in the ocean approximately 425 million years ago is revealed in a 3D computer model in research published today in the journal Biology Letters. The model is helping researchers to understand what primitive species on early Earth looked like and how they might have evolved into the types of creatures that are on Earth today.

The scientists, from Imperial College London, have developed a detailed 3D model of the only known fossilised specimen in the world of a creature called Drakozoon. The specimen was found by one of the team approximately 6 years ago in the Herefordshire Lagerstätte, one of England’s richest deposits of soft-bodied fossils.

The research reveals that Drakozoon was a cone-shaped, blob-like creature with a hood and it probably had a leathery exterior skin. It appears to have survived in the ocean by attaching itself to hard surfaces such as rock. It was approximately 3mm long, and used filament-bearing tentacles to catch and eat organic particles in seawater. It pulled its hood down over its body for protection against predators, pulling it back again to expose its tentacles when danger passed.

Dr Mark Sutton, from the Department of Earth Science and Engineering at Imperial College London, says:

“Excitingly, our 3D model brings back to life a creature that until recently no one knew even existed, and provides us with a window into the life of Drakozoon. We think this tiny blob of jelly survived by clinging onto rocks and hard shelled creatures, making a living by plucking microscopic morsels out of seawater. By looking at this primitive creature, we also get one tantalising step closer to understanding what the earliest creatures on Earth looked like.”

Scientists have debated what the first relatives of all creatures on Earth may have resembled and how their bodies evolved. Some scientists think the creatures had repeated units, similar to a caterpillar with its many segments and legs, while others think that their bodies were structured in more free-form ways, similar to slugs.

In today’s study, the researchers analysed their 3D model and discovered that Drakozoon had eight deep ridges on either side of its body. They suggest that these deep ridges are the genetic remnants from a time when Drakozoon had a body made of repeated units, supporting the theory that the earliest creatures on Earth were also made of repeated units.

The study shows that Drakozoon was an early member of a major group of invertebrate species called lophophorates. The best known lophophorates are the brachiopods, a type of spineless shellfish that are some of the most common fossils from the Silurian Period. The team found their Drakozoon specimen clinging onto the fossilised shell of a brachiopod.

The researchers created their 3D model by physically slicing a fossil into 200 pieces. These pieces were individually photographed and the images were fed into a computer, which generated the 3D model for analysis by the scientists.

The researchers say it is very rare to find ancient soft bodied creatures intact because they normally decompose before they can be preserved in sediment. The soft bodied Drakozoon was perfectly preserved because it lived in an area that was covered in volcanic ash, following a volcanic eruption that instantly entombed it and other creatures living with it, keeping it intact for 425 million years.

(PhysOrg.com) -- An early ancestor of the cockroach that lived around 300 million years ago is unveiled in unprecedented detail in a new three-dimensional 'virtual fossil' model, in research published today in the journal ...

A team of American and British scientists have identified and digitally reconstructed the first example of a fossilized brachiopod complete with its pedicle, the stalk attaching it to the sea floor, and its lophophore or ...

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists digging in Trowbridge, Wiltshire in England have uncovered the fossilized remains of a prehistoric squid-like creature that lived in the Jurassic period around 150 million years ago. Among their ...

A geologist from the University of Leicester is part of a team that has uncovered an ancient water flea-like creature from 425 million years ago - only the third of its kind ever to be discovered in ancient rocks.

Since 2008, MIT economist Tavneet Suri has studied the financial and social impacts of Kenyan mobile-money services, which allow users to store and exchange monetary values via mobile phone. Her work has shown that these ...

Researchers have discovered a dinosaur tail complete with its feathers trapped in a piece of amber. The finding reported in Current Biology on December 8 helps to fill in details of the dinosaurs' feather structure and evolution, ...

Reporting new research results involves detailed descriptions of methods and materials used in an experiment. But when a study uses computers to analyze data, create models or simulate things that can't be tested in a lab, ...

Nothing ruins a potentially fun event like putting it on your calendar. In a series of studies, researchers found that scheduling a leisure activity like seeing a movie or taking a coffee break led people to anticipate less ...

Wait a minute! This sponge blob is dated "425 m.y.o." [ha - yeah, right] making it far too late to be the mysterious 635 m.y.o. proto-sponge with all the tools needed to build a human (Adam Mann in Nature News, 4 Aug. 2010 - 'Researchers wring evolutionary clues from gene sequence' - incredible reading. Mann gives us not an explanation, but divination, ascribing unknown powers of evolution operating in a window of time).Meanwhile, back in the real world, science is supposed to be about evidence, observation, data, testability, repeatability, proof - not the hollow thinking of ideologues. There is a very real lack of evidence for transitional forms at the base of the fossil rcd (see Origin, ch 10). It was unsolved in darwin's day & remains unsolved today. All we're getting is non-explanations as to HOW this complexity emerged. The standard 'explanation' is: it exists - therefore it evolved.